Abstract for Ricardo Otheguy's talk

Distinguishing between language and dialect contact in variationist syntax:
Ricardo Otheguy (CUNY Graduate Center)
October 24, 2006 (Tuesday)
6:30 PM - ; Room 7102, The CUNY Graduate Center

Comparisons of occurrence rates of Spanish overt subject pronouns in different generational groups in New York appear to show English-induced contact changes in pronominal usage in the City. The study of occurrence rates, however, is inconclusive on the question of dialect contact. While it is clear that the Spanish that enters New York is regionally differentiated with regard to pronominal usage, cross-generational comparisons of occurrence rates alone cannot determine whether dialect contact is taking place in the City. But an analysis of constraint hierarchies related to the variable Person of the verb does provide strong evidence for dialect contact. Moreover, the evidence from constraint hiearchies tends to cast some doubt on the language contact results derived from the study of rates, so that on the whole there can be more certainty about dialect contact than about language contact. While dialect contact proceeds in terms of mutual accommodation between the different regions, the prevailing direction of influence is, contrary to what might be expected, from the less prestigious to the more prestigious varieties.